By News Desk

The recently released Chhaava, a historical action movie depicting the life of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj also known as Shambhuraje who ruled from 1681 to 1689 as the second king of the Maratha Empire has inadvertently generated a wave of hate and hostility against Indian Muslims across the India.

The Chhaava movie was theatrically released on 14 February and earned Rs 342.74 crore, making it the highest-grossing Indian film and Hindi film of 2025.

The movie, directed by Laxman Utekar, features Vicky Kaushal in the titular role of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj. The project also featured Rashmika Mandanna as Yesubai Bhonsale, Akshaye Khanna as Aurangzeb, Diana Penty as Zinat-un-Nissa Begum, Ashutosh Rana as Hambirrao Mohite, and Divya Duta as Soyarabai.

The purpose of the movie was expected to honour the Maratha warrior legacy yet its portrayal of Mughal ruler Aurangzeb has ignited a dangerous anti-Muslim hate campaign across social media platforms.

The far-right politicians, Hindutva outfit members and their supporters have started intense social media warfare, disseminating memes and posts calling the Indian Muslims “Aurangzeb ki aulad” (children of Aurangzeb). The new wave fueled already existing hostility and hate against the contemporary Muslim community in India.

Extremist factions and their supporters have exploited the film’s depiction of Aurangzeb’s violent treatment of Sambhaji Maharaj and have vowed to “revenge” past atrocities. This exaggeration of the move has ultimately resulted in hate and rhetoric sentiment which has been amplified through WhatsApp forwards, X threads, Facebook posts and Instagram reels.

These posts convey the ulterior message that contemporary Indian Muslims should bear the burden and take responsibility for Aurangzeb’s past actions against “Hindus”, turning historical grievances into modern social hatred intended to stir up communal hostility.

Even though some of the highly viewed right-wing pages’ hate campaigns have not even spared Muslim actors of Bollywood. They uttered that the “Khans, woke, Islamists Nexus need to break from Hindus Indian movie Industry”.

This story was originally published in siasat.com. Read the full story here.